There is one immutable truth Kendrick uttered in his verse during TDE’S BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher earlier tonight (Oct 15): “ain’t nothing been the same since they dropped ‘Control’.” Two months, countless subliminal disses in interviews and songs as well as endless debates later, Kendrick Lamar responds to his detractors in song for the first time.

Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and TDE new signee Isaiah Rashad deliver noteworthy verses, but Kendrick’s tour de force of lyricism was to centerpiece of the cypher. While none of the lyrics were directly aimed at anyone, lines such as “I got my thumb on Hip Hop and my foot in the back of yo a*s/Aftermath get the last laugh” felt reserved for certain MC’s.